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12 Ways to Supercharge Your Digestion

12 Ways to Supercharge Your Digestion

You are what you eat, according to the adage, but I say you are what you eat,  digest, absorb, and assimilate. The building blocks of every cell, tissue,  gland, hormone, organ, organ system are found in foods. If foods are not  adequately broken down into their components like essential fatty acids (from  fats), amino acids (from protein), sugars (from starchy foods), vitamins,  minerals, enzymes (specialized proteins), and phytonutrients, then systems in  the body begin to break down. If you are suffering from almost any health  problem chances are good that your digestion is involved. The flip side is that  if you improve your digestion your health will typically follow. Here are 10  ways to improve your digestion.

1.  Increase the amount of raw foods in your diet. It  may seem counterintuitive but if you chew them well enough, raw fruit,  vegetables, sprouts, and herbs contain the enzymes needed to digest them,  thereby freeing up your body’s energy and improving digestion.

2.  Simplify your meals. Complex meals involving  starches (potatoes, rice, or pasta) and concentrated proteins (meat, poultry, or  fish), topped off with a sweet dessert are a recipe for disaster. Try waiting  for a couple of hours to have dessert and keep the meal focused on either starch  or concentrated proteins along with lots of vegetables.

3.  Using a hot water bottle on your abdomen for about  one hour after eating has been shown to increase hydrochloric acid production.  It’s not difficult to do if you’re sitting down to watch TV anyway.

4.  Ensure you’re getting enough of the nutrients needed by the  body to manufacture hydrochloric acid. That includes several B-complex  vitamins. Research shows that when brewer’s yeast was added to the diet of  animals deficient in the nutrients, stomach acid normalized.

5.  Avoid drinking with meals or drink only enough to  take medications or supplements. Water prematurely increases the pH of the  stomach which neutralizes stomach acid and signals the body to move the food  into the intestines—even if it is insufficiently digested.

6.  Supplement with betaine hydrochloride. Avoid using  this supplement if you are prone to ulcers. Many enzyme supplements also contain  this ingredient.

7.  Take a full-spectrum digestive enzyme to help digest  food. Ideally it should include: lipase (for fats), proteases (for  proteins), lactase (for milk sugar), amylase (for starches), invertase (for  sugars), and cellulase and/or hemicellulase (for fiber).

8.  Avoid eating when you’re feeling severely stressed  or overly emotional as stress hormones can interfere with adequate  digestion.

9.  Taking herbal bitters like common or red centaury  (Centaurium minus or erythraea) or gentian (Gentiana lutea) have traditionally  helped increase stomach acid and improve digestion. They are normally found in  health food stores in liquid form and are taken with meals according to package  directions.

10.  Spices like ginger (Zingiber officinale), black  pepper (Piper nigrum), and cayenne pepper (Capsicum annum) can be added to meals  to aid digestion.

11.  Take a full-spectrum probiotic supplement on an empty  stomach. I usually find first thing in the morning or in the evening  before bed is best. Beneficial bacteria are needed in the intestines to  manufacture essential nutrients like vitamin B12, to keep harmful bacterial and  yeast infections under control, and to ensure proper absorption of nutrients in  your food.  Ideally, look for one that contains a variety of Lactobacilli  (L.) and Bifidobacteria (B.), including:  L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum,  L. acidophilus, L. paracasei, L. salivarius, B. animalis lactis, B. bifidum, B.  breve, B. infantis, and B. longum.

12.  Chew your food well. The stomach can’t do the job  of the teeth so it’s important that food is well chewed by the time it gets to  the stomach.

By Michelle Schoffro Cook



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